Bob Dole

Robert Joseph Dole (1923- ), commonly referred to as Bob Dole is a former Republican U.S. Senator from Kansas and senior counselor for the global PR firm APCO Worldwide and special counsel in Alston & Bird's Washington, D.C. office.

After announcing that he had teamed up with APCO Worldwide, the company President and CEO Margery Kraus told PR Week that he would provide "some sage guidance as to how Washington works and how the administration functions." Kraus said that she had known Dole for 25 years and had worked with him in a number of projects in the preceding year. On his website Dole describes his role at Alston & Bird as focusing on "international and domestic legislative, policy and regulatory affairs as well as on healthcare policy and related matters." APCO describe his role with them in identical terms. 

Dole also runs his own company, Bob Dole Enterprises, "a vehicle for managing his other business interests -- public speaking and television appearances, consulting, list management and writing."

Dole is also "a member of the Legislative and Public Policy Group, a group dedicated to helping clients navigate the intricacies of the laws and regulations passed by Congress, the White House and the courts."


 * Founding Co-Chair, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa
 * Advisory Board, Bipartisan Policy Center
 * Honorary Co-Chair, Alliance to End Hunger
 * Former Commissioner, International Commission on Missing Persons
 * Former Director, It's My Party Too

Biographical details
Dole was born in Russell, Kansas on July 22, 1923. He graduated with a law degree from Washburn Municipal University, Topeka, Kansas, "with an undergraduate and law degree in 1952, after attending Kansas University 1941-1943 and University of Arizona 1948-1949". In 1952 he was admitted to the bar admitted to the bar began work in the law in Russell.

Dole was an infantry officer in Italy during the Second World War and after being wounded was hospitalized for thirty-nine months.

Dole's political career spanned from 1951 to 1996. His roles included as:
 * member, State house of representatives 1951-1953;
 * county attorney of Russell County 1953-1961;
 * elected as a Republican Representative from Kansas, 1961-69 (6th District 1961-63, 1st District 1963-69);
 * elected to the United States Senate in 1968, reelected in 1974, 1980, 1986 and again in 1992 and served from January 3, 1969, to June 11, 1996, when he resigned to devote his efforts to his presidential campaign;
 * Chairman of Republican National Committee, 1971-73;
 * majority leader 1985-1987, 1995-1996; minority leader 1987-1995;
 * chairman, Committee on Finance (1981-1985), Special Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1985-1987);
 * unsuccessful Republican candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1976;
 * unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988; and
 * unsuccessful Republican nominee for President of the United States in 1996.

Following his defeat in 1996 Dole returned to practice law in Washington D.C.

Married to Elizabeth Hanford Dole

In 2004, Dole has been seen working as a spokesman advocating people served by Medicare to switch to using prescription drug cards.


 * Director, Bread for the World
 * Member Committee on Conscience, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Tobacco issues
Bob Dole has been an unabashed supporter of tobacco industry interests.

In 1986, Dole joined two senators from Connecticut in writing a letter to the Hong Kong government on behalf of United States Tobacco Company (makers of chewing tobacco) urging Hong Kong not to ban the sale of smokeless tobacco. The letter implied that the United States might engage in trade retaliation if it did. Former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop wrote in his memoirs, "I imagine they thought it was more important to save a Connecticut firm's profits than Asian lives."

According to a Los Angeles Times article from 1996, Dole at that time had received a total of $477,000 in tobacco industry contributions and had flown 38 times aboard tobacco industry corporate jets. He had also commented that smoking is not necessarily addictive, despite the U.S. Surgeon General's report in 1988 declaring nicotine an addictive substance.

Books

 * Bob Dole, Elizabeth Dole, Richard Norton Smith, Unlimited Partners: Our American Story, Simon & Schuster, July 1996. ISBN: 0684834014
 * Bob Dole (ed), Great Presidential Wit...I Wish I Was in the Book: A Collection of Humorous Anecdotes and Quotations, Scribner, January 2001. ISBN: 0743203925
 * Bob Dole, (ed) Great Political Wit : Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House, Broadway. ISBN: 0767906675
 * Robert L. Maddox, Robert Dole, Prostate Cancer: What I Found Out & What You Should Know, Harold Shaw, March 2000. ISBN: 0877885664

Contact details
Personal website: http://www.bobdole.org

Related SourceWatch resources

 * David Kuo